VALE BENNETTS GREEN
- Thread starter willey
- Start date
H
hard_act_to_follow
i here its turning into a BING LEE, what a shame!! 
6
69=breakfastofchampions
Mayfield bowl is sold also...but will remain a bowl
Mayfield Bowl will trade as normal, the new owner's, headed by former tournament bowler Terry Maher, will take over running in approximately 6 weeks time. Apparently the Bing Lee group almost had that one as well.
With Bennetts closing Terry, with the help of incoming manager Peter Zambelis, will speak to all leagues in the hope that he can help them out, if they want to continue with thier comps.
Thier is talk of putting in a lift at Mayfield. but I can not confirm that at this stage.
willey.
With Bennetts closing Terry, with the help of incoming manager Peter Zambelis, will speak to all leagues in the hope that he can help them out, if they want to continue with thier comps.
Thier is talk of putting in a lift at Mayfield. but I can not confirm that at this stage.
willey.
Out of interest, I went to the Auctions in Sydney on tuesday to see if the
6 AMF centres would sell. Up for grabs was Bennetts Green, Farfield, Mt Druit, Bankstown, Blacktown and Mayfield.
Bennetts Green was the first to go for approx $2.2 million and I believe it was Bing Lee that purchased the site.
Blacktown did get some interest at the auction however bidding stalled b4 the reserve price and the site was eventually passed in.
Mt Druitt was the best option in my opinion with AMF offering a 5 +5 year lease back to the prospective buyer, however, NO bids were lodged at all for this centre.
Bankstown and Fairfield, like Mt Druitt were both passed in without a single bid being lodged.
Mayfield was the last centre to be auctioned and this did sell to Terry Maher. I wont say the price out of respect to Terry, and i wish him well in his new business venture.
So with 4 out of the 6 not selling at Auction, it will be interesting to see what happens with the rest of the centres AMF own across the country....
Bert
6 AMF centres would sell. Up for grabs was Bennetts Green, Farfield, Mt Druit, Bankstown, Blacktown and Mayfield.
Bennetts Green was the first to go for approx $2.2 million and I believe it was Bing Lee that purchased the site.
Blacktown did get some interest at the auction however bidding stalled b4 the reserve price and the site was eventually passed in.
Mt Druitt was the best option in my opinion with AMF offering a 5 +5 year lease back to the prospective buyer, however, NO bids were lodged at all for this centre.
Bankstown and Fairfield, like Mt Druitt were both passed in without a single bid being lodged.
Mayfield was the last centre to be auctioned and this did sell to Terry Maher. I wont say the price out of respect to Terry, and i wish him well in his new business venture.
So with 4 out of the 6 not selling at Auction, it will be interesting to see what happens with the rest of the centres AMF own across the country....
Bert
Tiger
Active Member
That's very interesting news there Willey.willey said:
I think its very sad news when any centre closes its doors.
What kind of machines, and what type of lanes do "The Green" have?
Moonah's machines are well past thier used by date (AMF 82/30 6525's) that have been in use since the early 1950's (first in China, then to Moonah in 1962 when it opened) - so I've been told - so it will certainly be great to get newer gear, should make the poor old techs job a bit easier too I'd suspect :lol:
Very interesting to hear of the number of centres up for the chop in NSW really, I'm just wondering what others might become casualties across the country. :shock:
Well Tiger, the machines at Bennetts are 82/70 with M.P. chassis plus Positive Ball Lifts (PBL ) and light ball sensors. The only down side is they have Spectrum ball returns. These machines used to have the best Frames Per Stop ( FPS ) in AMF Australia, i.e; the least trouble calls.
The lanes are HPL 9000 Which were put in about 4 years ago.
willey.
The lanes are HPL 9000 Which were put in about 4 years ago.
willey.
S
steve_jones
Hey Tiger........let me help you a little.
Refer to any ol' web site you want and ascertain the following......
1. When the first AMF Pin Spotter was invented and where/when it went into action? Hint - go to AMF's web site - they very likely speak the truth!
2. Determine from a similar web search [I'd suggest you go to another
site] when bowling first became an activity/sport/recreation in China?
Hint - in 1990 there were about 100 or so lanes operating in China - by 2003 there was something over 25,000 in use [don't quote me 'cause getting real data out of China is near impossible]. By all accounts there were zero in 1950 - or any time in the 1950's or even 1960's - or even...well, you do the research....maybe there were 24 somewhere in a basement of the Lido hotel in Beijing [when was that?] - but as I say, you do the research.
3. Determine from a similar [or at least somewhat similar] web site [suggest any Asian history site you care to name] what was actually happening in China in the early 1950's? Hint - I don't think bowling one of the things "happening".
4. Write down 100 times - "I won't ever repeat stuff that is simpy impossible to believe if I do something that is even close to my own research".
Actually Tiger - write it down 200 times!
Of course I could well be wrong and the 30's at Moonah are early 1950 models made and stamped accordingly - and have a legitimate history of first being in China. If this is the case then I'll buy one of them for my home...it will sit in the middle of my lounge room along with the working Ford Edsel, Studebaker Golden Hawk and stuffed Dodo I wished I had [I'll resist adding...Tasmanian Devil!].
I enjoy reading your contributions Tiger - this is just friendly advice.
Steve Jones
Refer to any ol' web site you want and ascertain the following......
1. When the first AMF Pin Spotter was invented and where/when it went into action? Hint - go to AMF's web site - they very likely speak the truth!
2. Determine from a similar web search [I'd suggest you go to another
site] when bowling first became an activity/sport/recreation in China?
Hint - in 1990 there were about 100 or so lanes operating in China - by 2003 there was something over 25,000 in use [don't quote me 'cause getting real data out of China is near impossible]. By all accounts there were zero in 1950 - or any time in the 1950's or even 1960's - or even...well, you do the research....maybe there were 24 somewhere in a basement of the Lido hotel in Beijing [when was that?] - but as I say, you do the research.
3. Determine from a similar [or at least somewhat similar] web site [suggest any Asian history site you care to name] what was actually happening in China in the early 1950's? Hint - I don't think bowling one of the things "happening".
4. Write down 100 times - "I won't ever repeat stuff that is simpy impossible to believe if I do something that is even close to my own research".
Actually Tiger - write it down 200 times!
Of course I could well be wrong and the 30's at Moonah are early 1950 models made and stamped accordingly - and have a legitimate history of first being in China. If this is the case then I'll buy one of them for my home...it will sit in the middle of my lounge room along with the working Ford Edsel, Studebaker Golden Hawk and stuffed Dodo I wished I had [I'll resist adding...Tasmanian Devil!].
I enjoy reading your contributions Tiger - this is just friendly advice.
Steve Jones
Tiger
Active Member
Hi Steve nice to hear from you
I actually said that "I was told that" by a former person that was in charge down here some time ago.
And given your summation of events there (and involvement in AMF for a long time) - I would have to agree with you.
I quite often regarded the person who told me the story that they were first placed in a centre in Beijing, China (located in a shopping centre type bowling centre in 1952) and shipped down here when Moonah first opened in 1962 - as rather full of sh*t :lol: albeit very convincing.
And by the looks of it, you've confirmed that for me
Although the way they've run for many years now, you could be excused for thinking they were built in 1922 - not the best sadly, but they've done the job as best they can.
But I'm not a mechanic, so I don't have an intimate knowledge of machine histories like maybe Androooo would.
Although I do recall reading a book (and this is perhaps what lead me to the conclusion that the info was correct) about 15+ years ago, showing an old machine like the ones here from about that era (early 50's)
Can't remember the name of the book, I just remeber it had Dick Weber on the cover.
Thanks for the input
PS: How's beautiful Hongkers these days, I stayed in the Kowloon District when my Mum was living there in the mid 90's (when it was still a British Colony) - reminded me a lot of here, only about 6 million more people, and a damned sight hotter Great place though.
I actually said that "I was told that" by a former person that was in charge down here some time ago.
And given your summation of events there (and involvement in AMF for a long time) - I would have to agree with you.
I quite often regarded the person who told me the story that they were first placed in a centre in Beijing, China (located in a shopping centre type bowling centre in 1952) and shipped down here when Moonah first opened in 1962 - as rather full of sh*t :lol: albeit very convincing.
And by the looks of it, you've confirmed that for me
Although the way they've run for many years now, you could be excused for thinking they were built in 1922 - not the best sadly, but they've done the job as best they can.
But I'm not a mechanic, so I don't have an intimate knowledge of machine histories like maybe Androooo would.
Although I do recall reading a book (and this is perhaps what lead me to the conclusion that the info was correct) about 15+ years ago, showing an old machine like the ones here from about that era (early 50's)
Can't remember the name of the book, I just remeber it had Dick Weber on the cover.
Thanks for the input
PS: How's beautiful Hongkers these days, I stayed in the Kowloon District when my Mum was living there in the mid 90's (when it was still a British Colony) - reminded me a lot of here, only about 6 million more people, and a damned sight hotter
Great place though.
I beleive Moonah's 30's originally came from Japan, and were approx. 7 years old when they were installed here.
The only upgrade that I know of, was getting rid of the old original vertical ball elevators and installing PBLs, in 1985 I beleive.
The upgrade to HPL and 70's would be very nice, but I'll beleive it when I see it.
The only upgrade that I know of, was getting rid of the old original vertical ball elevators and installing PBLs, in 1985 I beleive.
The upgrade to HPL and 70's would be very nice, but I'll beleive it when I see it.
I very much doubt that the 30's at Moonah were built in 1955.
The tariffs in those days meant that a lot of the parts were actually built in Australia to cut down on costs. I started working on 30's in the 60's in the Sydney area, so I can speak from experience. Now there are a couple of areas of the machine you can look for to find the age of the machine and if certain parts were made in Australia.
Are the 30's in Moonah series 1 or series 2. Series 1 is distinctive by the fact it has a 2 inch steel conduit going from the "J" box to the "R" box ( usually a good place to sit while watching the machine run ), series 2 has a flexible conduit with no actual "R" box. But if parts were made in Australia the first place to look is the Front Roller Assy which for some reason had no grease nipple hole, these and a few other parts were built by Pioneer Welding a company which was based at Lansvale in Sydney owned by AMF.
Another thing with Australian content was the lanes themselves, many of the early Sydney AMF centres had Ash timber instead of Pine timber in the running area of the lane, ( e.g; Fairfield ,Blacktown, Hurstville, Hornsby )this timber has a distinct lack of tight grain compared to Pine, and when sanded they had a pink colouring. Probably why the AMF centres did not score as good as the Brunswick centres as most Brunswick centres had Pine running areas.
These myths also are said about Mayfield Bowl probably because we have 11 machines built in Germany and 11 machines built in Australia, but it's not true.
willey.
The tariffs in those days meant that a lot of the parts were actually built in Australia to cut down on costs. I started working on 30's in the 60's in the Sydney area, so I can speak from experience. Now there are a couple of areas of the machine you can look for to find the age of the machine and if certain parts were made in Australia.
Are the 30's in Moonah series 1 or series 2. Series 1 is distinctive by the fact it has a 2 inch steel conduit going from the "J" box to the "R" box ( usually a good place to sit while watching the machine run ), series 2 has a flexible conduit with no actual "R" box. But if parts were made in Australia the first place to look is the Front Roller Assy which for some reason had no grease nipple hole, these and a few other parts were built by Pioneer Welding a company which was based at Lansvale in Sydney owned by AMF.
Another thing with Australian content was the lanes themselves, many of the early Sydney AMF centres had Ash timber instead of Pine timber in the running area of the lane, ( e.g; Fairfield ,Blacktown, Hurstville, Hornsby )this timber has a distinct lack of tight grain compared to Pine, and when sanded they had a pink colouring. Probably why the AMF centres did not score as good as the Brunswick centres as most Brunswick centres had Pine running areas.
These myths also are said about Mayfield Bowl probably because we have 11 machines built in Germany and 11 machines built in Australia, but it's not true.
willey.
S
steve_jones
Hi Tiger,
You have a great memory [and Willey clearly has a great deal of knowledge - thx for the history lesson Willey interesting reading it was] - the book you refer to is the Perfect Game - it notes that two demonstration models of the AMF Pinspotter were on show at the 1946 ABC Tournament. However it took until 1951 for the first 12 machines to be refined enough [technically stable, acceptable weight and size] to go into a working centre - the first commercial sale was completed in 1952. Your note made me dig around to find the book - I put it down about 5 hours later - it's a great read - I'd actually forgotten how good it is.
I left HK some time back - after just on eight years there. You're right - it's a great location - over 7 million there now, a bit crowded for me these days, but it's still an exciting place to visit.
Be well,
Steve
You have a great memory [and Willey clearly has a great deal of knowledge - thx for the history lesson Willey interesting reading it was] - the book you refer to is the Perfect Game - it notes that two demonstration models of the AMF Pinspotter were on show at the 1946 ABC Tournament. However it took until 1951 for the first 12 machines to be refined enough [technically stable, acceptable weight and size] to go into a working centre - the first commercial sale was completed in 1952. Your note made me dig around to find the book - I put it down about 5 hours later - it's a great read - I'd actually forgotten how good it is.
I left HK some time back - after just on eight years there. You're right - it's a great location - over 7 million there now, a bit crowded for me these days, but it's still an exciting place to visit.
Be well,
Steve
willey said:
I think series 2, as I can't see the "R" box, and as far as the front roller goes, I try to stay away from them as much as possible... lol... But will check next time I'm in a pit.
Bingo, we have ash backends. You get a very nice "orange peel" effect going if you don't use a sealer after a resurface because of the grain. This, we have found out.
